


Next To You

by savannah_blue



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU Famous/Non-famous, Alpha Louis, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Closeted Character, Closeted Harry, Coming Out, Falling In Love, Famous Harry, Fluff, Harry is eighteen, Harry won X-Factor, Harry-centric, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Harry, It will take a while but we will get to the fluff promise, Louis is twenty, M/M, Mates, Non-Famous Louis, Omega Harry, Protective Louis, Romance, Sign of the times, Singer Harry, Sweet Creature, Well it has amazing lyrics too so it's now part of the story too, Which has amazing lyrics that I will totally incorporate into the story, Will probably add more tags as I write, X-Factor - Freeform, how is that not a tag?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-10-05 19:12:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10315076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savannah_blue/pseuds/savannah_blue
Summary: When Harry Styles won the X-Factor he quickly became the latest pop sensation. When Louis runs into him at a party, he quickly realizes that Harry Styles is nothing like his reputation of womanizing alpha. Turns out, Harry Styles is an omega. And Louis' mate.A story about love, support and being proud of who you are.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovely people :) This is my first time writing in this fandom, and I've had a bit of a break from writing, so I'm pretty nervous about posting this. Please let me know if you like the story so far - comments are like rainbows and puppies, i.e. the things that make my day and also motivate me to keep writing :)
> 
> As background, in this universe, mates are alphas and omegas that are soulmates, meant to be together. Finding your mate is rare, and most people are happy to be in regular relationships. The word mates is used only for those lucky few that find their soulmate.
> 
> Oh, and disclaimer: this work is entirely fictional and any resemblance to any real or fictional characters has only been used for inspiration. I don't profit from this work in any way. Do not repost my work elsewhere. (but do tell your friends about it with proper links and credit :)

Louis was bored. Usually he liked coming with Liam to these things. After Liam had produced Dua Lipa’s chart topping new single, he had started to get invited to all sorts of industry events. After the first one, an album launch for some up and coming girl band – Louis never did bother to remember the name, although according to Liam they were the Next Big Thing, but according to Liam there was a new Next Big Thing about three times a week – Liam had come home and complained to Louis for days about how he hadn’t had anyone to talk to and had begged Louis to come with him the next time. Louis had pointed out that Liam was now one of those oh so sought after Next Big Things, but Liam being Liam was way too insecure for his own good, and so Louis had become his platonic date slash ice breaker, the chatty but non-threatening alpha there to initiate conversations between Liam and all the people in the industry he admired but was too intimidated to approach.

Except this time he had done too good of a job. After subtly talking up his very good friend, amazing producer Liam Payne to R&B star Zayn Malik over a shared smoke, the two had been completely absorbed in each other for the whole evening. Louis was pretty sure the focus of their conversation had moved from beats and possible collaborations to something of a more private nature if the way Zayn was leaning into Liam and kept touching his arm and other places was anything to go by. Long story short, Louis was left to entertain himself. Which usually wouldn’t be a problem, but the people at this party were sort of lame and the alcohol was not flowing. At all.

Louis was interrupted from staring unseeingly into his first and only drink of the evening by a commotion at the entrance of the room. There was a sudden excited chatter and heads not so discreetly turning to look at the newcomers. Louis craned his neck to catch a glimpse of wild curls and a flower patterned shirt.

Harry Styles. Louis inwardly sighed. Yes, a couple of years back when a starry eyed, sixteen year old Harry Styles had charmed the pants of the country, being the youngest contestant ever to win the X-Factor, Louis had thought he was quite cute. And adorable. And sweet. And charming. And cheeky. Louis had watched his sisters swoon over him and had pretended to scoff while inwardly joining them. Just slightly. When Louis had drunk blurted out his crush on the boy, Liam had teased him for weeks, and then he had offered to buy tickets for them to the X-Factor tour. Because Liam was amazing like that.

And then Harry Styles had presented as an alpha for the world to admire. Suddenly, he was constantly surrounded by long legged models and socialites who wanted their fifteen minutes in the spotlight. Gone was the sweet, cheeky boy. Filling the front pages of tabloids was womanizer Harry Styles and the tales of his latest conquests. And Louis was disappointed to watch as fame seemed to rise to the head of Britain’s youngest pop sensation and his musical aspirations seemed to be forgotten, buried in scandals and candid paparazzi shots.

As Louis watched, Harry wrapped a lazy arm around the shoulder of the blonde that was cozied up next to him, her dress barely covering anything, not that her date seemed to notice. Harry was slowly making his way through the room towards the bar where Louis was sitting, throwing out polite greetings to anyone that so much as looked his way. Because apparently he was still as charming as ever, despite all the rumours of the arrogant alpha looking down his nose at, well, everyone.

Harry sidled up to the crowded bar next to where Louis was leaning and Louis tried very hard to keep his eighteen year old self from freaking out and resolutely kept his gaze locked on the assortment of bottles behind the bar. When he felt Harry’s body lightly knock into his he couldn’t help glance over. And promptly froze staring into the loveliest pair of green eyes.

Calling them green did not do them justice, Louis mused. Even in the dim light, he felt like he could distinguish flecks of gold and brown and emerald that sparkled under Louis’ gaze. Louis couldn’t tear his eyes away, but he could sense Harry licking his lips and drew in a sharp breath. Harry’s body felt warm pressed up next to him and Louis had the urge to play with the already unbuttoned buttons of Harry’s sheer shirt, letting his hands splay over Harry’s broad chest. Another deep breath had Louis furrow his brow. There was a sweet smell surrounding Louis, growing stronger by the minute. It reminded him of the smell of fresh air after rain and smudged ink. Louis breathed in deep, his eyes fluttering closed, letting the smell fill his senses, and he felt his frantic heart beat calm down.

He snapped his eyes back open to look searchingly at Harry, but before Louis realized what was happening, Harry’s eyes widened and he stumbled back, bumping into the model du jour that was still standing next to him. He stood there for long seconds, swaying between leaning back into Louis and pushing himself away from the bar, before he abruptly tore his gaze away after one last, long look at Louis and rushed away, leaving the model looking irately at Louis.

Louis stared at Harry’s retreating back, the smell of rain and ink retreating with him, before he finally jolted out of the haze his brain had seemed to envelope itself in. _The smell_. The sweet, sweet smell of rain and ink. The smell Louis was already missing desperately. The smell of _Harry_. Because Harry? Louis blinked his eyes in a daze. Harry was Louis’ mate. Harry Styles was an omega.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big hugs to everyone reading and liking this story, it has made me so happy seeing people enjoying it! <3 Also, I am having The Worst writer's block, so knowing people are reading this and waiting for updates has really been a big motivating factor to push myself to keep writing. I hope you guys like this next chapter :) I am already working on the next one, so hopefully I'll be able to update a bit quicker in the future.
> 
> Some rambling about my thought process that you can skip, but that I just wanted to share in case someone is wondering. Not capitalizing the word alpha is very much done on purpose. I feel like capitalizing alpha, but not omega, creates a hierarchy and implies a power imbalance I am trying to avoid. Yes, in this universe, omegas are sometimes treated as inferior, but for Harry and Louis and everyone not an ass in this story, alphas and omegas are equal and I wanted to emphasise that with the spelling as well.

This was bad. This was so bad. Harry pulled at his curls, not caring about messing up the carefully styled locks – though he did feel bad for a second about ruining all of Lou’s hard work. He looked at himself in the mirror of the bathroom he had stumbled into. His eyes were wide and his cheeks flushed, all the confidence he had worked so hard over the years to maintain in his every move completely evaporated from his slumped over posture.

Harry breathed in shakily. That guy out there – that beautiful, gorgeous guy that had Harry practically drooling and wanting to curl up against him, making himself smaller to fit against his compact frame – that guy was Harry’s mate. He kind of knew as soon as their eyes met – his _blueblueblue_ eyes – but it wasn’t until all Harry could smell was burnt marshmallows and sunny days at the beach that he realised. That guy was his mate. His alpha. And Harry had bolted. Because that was bad. So bad.

This was not supposed to happen. Of course, Harry knew he had a mate out there somewhere, but the chances of actually meeting them were slim to none. Most people never met their mate, so why should Harry? Sure, he had dreamt about meeting a boy – as long as he could remember dreaming about meeting his mate, he had been pretty sure it would be a boy – and living the fairy tale of just instantly _knowing_ and living ridiculously, unimaginably happily ever after. And when he had presented as omega just after his seventeenth Birthday those dreams had shifted into a longing for his mate to find him and love him and care for him. Make Harry feel safe and cherished.

Of course, management had been less than thrilled finding out about Harry being omega. Everyone had expected him to present as beta or even as alpha, Harry being more outgoing and having a broader frame than most omegas already at sixteen. Sometimes he wondered if presenting as beta would have made any difference, or if management always planned for him to be the next heartthrob alpha to sweep the female population of the nation off its feet. He had signed the contracts, so he had no choice but to go along with portraying the PR-persona created by the money-making machine he had found himself surrounded by. Harry liked to think of it as a game of pretend, a role he was playing. There was a certain satisfaction knowing he was talented enough to be able to fool everyone. At least, that’s what he kept telling himself. And it allowed him to make music, to perform, to do what he had always loved doing. And if the music wasn’t exactly what Harry had imagined and if all the headlines documenting endless pap walks with a never ending stream of women Harry had given up on being anything but cordial with made him feel uncomfortable, well. Harry preferred not to think about that. Because he was living his dream.

And now Harry would lose it all. _Nobody wants to pay to watch an omega sing_. Harry could hear the voices of his management team echoing in his head. _Omegas just don’t have that star quality that keep people interested_. Harry sank down to his knees, scooting over to the corner of the bathroom and wrapped his arms around his knees. _Omegas aren’t good enough. You’re not good enough._

Tears were gathering in Harry’s eyes – _omegas are so weak, you need to toughen up!_ – when the door to the bathroom cracked open and he snapped his eyes to stare wide-eyed at the people in the doorway. The shorter man – Harry’s _mate_ , Harry’s _alpha_ – thanked the employee that had apparently unlocked the door for him, before clicking the door shut behind him and looking at Harry nervously. Harry distantly realised that his panicked thoughts had been accompanied by an insistent knocking that he probably should have responded to.

The man – Harry’s _mate_ , Harry’s _alpha_ – took a tentative step towards Harry, but halted when he noticed Harry curling further in on himself. Harry was trying so hard to pull himself together, but it was all too overwhelming. He had learned to hide behind a mask of indifference, but this was more than he could deal with. He didn’t know what to do. There was nobody there to tell him how to deal with this. For the first time in a really long time, he really wished someone from management would just magically appear and tell him what to do. He might not always agree with them, but they always told him what to do. He just needed someone to tell him what to do.

The alpha smiled tentatively at Harry and hesitantly shuffled closer until he was standing in front of Harry. He rocked back on his heels and gave a small wave of his hand.

“Hi?”

The sound of the alpha’s voice snapped Harry out of his panicked mind. The alpha’s voice was high and slightly scratchy and Harry kind of wanted to listen to it forever. The alpha sounded kind, but also kind of like he wouldn’t hesitate to tease Harry mercilessly once they knew each other better and he didn’t have to worry about freaking Harry out – a very real concern at the moment, and the reason Harry appreciated his apparent effort to seem as non-threatening as possible. When Harry didn’t answer, the alpha started fiddling nervously with his fingers, and the urge to put his alpha at ease finally had Harry uncurling his body and stumbling to his feet – the alpha reaching out a quick steadying hand when Harry tripped himself into his arms with a grunt.

“Oops.”

Harry looked up into the _blueblueblue_ eyes that were suddenly so _very, very close_ to him. Before he could activate any resemblance of a brain to mouth filter – something he had become an expert in since learning to hide every unwanted aspect of himself from the public eye, it seemed a bit unfair it would abandon him in this moment – he let out a breath and an almost awed, “Your eyes are so blue.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he clamped his hands over his mouth and let out an embarrassed squeak, his cheeks heating up under the alpha’s amused gaze.

“Thanks, curly.” The alpha grinned at him and, after long seconds of Harry being unable to tear his gaze away from _blueblueblue_ , added, “I’m Louis.”

“’m Harry”, Harry breathed into the small space between them. They were standing so close Harry could feel the warmth from Louis’ body and he fidgeted with the urge to eliminate the last bit of space between them, wanting to burrow his nose in the crook of Louis’ neck and just. Breathe him in. Feeling like smelling a complete stranger, mate or not, may be crossing a line from embarrassing to mortifying, Harry forced himself to stay put.

Louis cleared his throat. “So, um, I guess we’re… I mean, I’m… You’re my…”

“Yeah.” Harry answered in almost a daze, before the words fully registered and he jerked back, his eyes going back to their previous wide stare and his heart going back to hammering furiously in his chest. Right, they were mates. Louis was his mate. _This was so bad_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy so many people are reading and liking this, thank you!!! I hope you guys like this next chapter as well :) - if anyone can focus on fanfic with our Harry out there taking over the world <3 Your lovely support and Harry's amazingness (shut up spell check, that is totally a word) has inspired me to write, though, so I promise the next update will come faster. Please let me know what you think, I love to hear what people think of what my brain manages to come up with :)

Louis furrowed his brow in confusion when Harry stumbled away from his reach. He watched with wide eyes as Harry swayed on his feet. Louis was pretty sure the only thing keeping Harry from making a run for it was Louis’ body standing between him and the door to the bathroom. After a few seconds of Harry’s gaze flitting widely around the small space, he slid back down to crouch in the corner where Louis had found him.

Louis blinked in surprise. How did they end up back to Harry cowering in the corner? He thought he had been doing rather well, considering he was utterly unprepared for meeting his mate and even less prepared for his first meeting with his mate consisting of trying to calm a nervous omega. He wasn’t really sure how he had expected meeting his mate to go, but so far it was far more nerve wracking and definitely less swooping off of feet than he would have thought. Though maybe the problem was that he hadn’t ever really given it that much thought. The whole idea of meeting your mate was such an unlikely rarity that it just felt foolish to Louis to get your hopes up. Which had felt like a good game plan at the time, but now left him completely clueless on what to do, never having taken the time to actually imagine what meeting his mate might be like.

Louis shifted nervously from foot to foot. Harry kept staring at him with wide eyes. It made Louis feel all fidgety. He cautiously crouched down in front of Harry, feeling like he was approaching a spooked animal.

”You okay there, love?”

As the endearment slipped out without thought, Louis felt himself blush, but felt monumentally less embarrassed when a ghost of a smile briefly flitted over Harry’s face at his words.

“I…” Harry’s words faltered and he looked down and shrugged his shoulder, biting his lip. At another time Louis would have spent hours thinking about how he wanted to be the one biting that lip, but now he let the fleeting thought go. He sat down next to Harry and gently nudged their shoulders together.

“It’s a bit much, yeah?”

Harry glanced up at him and let out a choked, “Yeah.”

Louis gave his shoulder another gentle nudge, keeping his voice soft. “But, it’s good, yeah? Like, us? Finding each other?”

Before Louis had even finished speaking, Harry was shaking his head furiously, his eyes suddenly glassy with unshed tears. Louis’ heart dropped. Was that why Harry was upset? He didn’t want Louis? The thought had all the air leaving his lungs, his chest feeling tight and his eyes burning and he let out a quiet, “Oh.”

At Louis' dejected tone, Harry’s head snapped up and he let out a loud “No, no, no!” that echoed in the quiet bathroom. Before Louis had time to react, Harry’s face crumpled.

“They won’t like me anymore!” Harry burst into tears and Louis looked at him in shock before hesitantly reaching out to wrap his arm over Harry’s shaking shoulders. Harry stiffened before launching himself into Louis’ arms and grabbing his shirt tightly in his fist. Louis let his instincts to protect take over and shifted his body to allow Harry to curl further into his arms. He let his hand run down Harry’s back soothingly, playing with Harry’s soft curls at the nape of his neck with his other hand.

“Shh, it’s okay, love. Everything’s gonna be okay. I’ve got you.”

Holding his crying omega, Louis was beyond confused. He was pretty sure the reaction to meeting your mate wasn’t supposed to be desperate crying. But here he was, trying frantically to calm the shaking boy in his arms. The way Harry was clinging to him was alleviating some of his fears of Harry rejecting him, but gave him no clue to the reason behind Harry’s heart breaking sobs. The boy crying in his arms, clinging desperately to him was nothing like the confident alpha that had entered the party only short moments ago. Louis tightened his hold around Harry’s shaking frame. Was that it? Was he scared of what people would think when they found out he was omega? Louis supposed that wasn’t unreasonable. There were still quite a bit of outdated views on alphas and omegas. He just wouldn’t have thought that the music industry was a place where those conservative ideas had a foot hold. Nothing made any sense to him and he resigned himself to a state of confusion until he was able to calm Harry down enough to hold an actual conversation with his mate. _His mate_. Despite the current situation, the thought made Louis smile. Harry was Louis’ mate. Louis was Harry’s mate. Harry was Louis’ omega. And without having spoken more than a few words to each other, them really knowing nothing about each other, all Louis wanted to do was take care of Harry, make sure Harry was okay. They were meant to be together. That had to mean they would figure this out. Right?

Louis continued murmuring soothing words until Harry’s sobs tapered into quiet hiccups. He reached down and let his thumb swipe over Harry’s tear-streaked face.

“There we go, my good boy. It’s okay, such a good boy, so, so good for me.”

Harry burrowed himself further against Louis’ chest, the action preventing Louis from freaking out over surely crossing some boundary with the words that had fallen out of his mouth without his permission. Harry let out a quiet sniffle and loosened his tight grip on Louis’ now irreparably wrinkled dress shirt, letting his fingers play hesitantly with one of the buttons. Louis twined one of his curls around his fingers and kept gently stroking Harry’s back until Harry’s tense shoulders relaxed and he slumped against Louis.

Louis was running through options for what to say, trying desperately to come up with the right words to make Harry feel better when a loud beep startled them out of the relative calm they had fallen into and Harry scrambled to reach into his pocket for his phone. Louis watched as Harry’s eyes flicked over the brightly lit screen before he scrambled to untangle himself from Louis’ hold.

“Hey, hey, what’s going on?”

Louis kept his voice soft to not startle the omega, but Harry still turned frantic eyes to him.

“The paps… We’re supposed to… Pictures, there’s supposed to be… Need to...”

Louis loosened his hold on Harry, but kept him tucked to his side. He tried to come up with a way to phrase what he wanted to say that wouldn’t upset Harry more.

“Love, I don’t think you want that tonight, yeah?”

Harry squirmed to get out of Louis’ hold. “No, no, I need to! Need to… They’re waiting!”

Louis forced his voice to remain gentle. “Love, I really don’t think you want anyone taking pictures of you right now, you’re looking a bit rough, yeah?”

At Louis’ words, Harry snapped his mouth shut. “Oh. Right, yeah”

The fight left Harry’s body and he stopped struggling against Louis’ hold. He wiped at his face and, after a moment of hesitation, slumped back into Louis’ side. In a small voice he mumbled into Louis’ shirt, “Can we go home now?”

Louis wasn’t sure exactly what Harry meant, but nodded his head anyway. “Of course, love. Let’s get you out of here, get you some rest. It’s been a long night, yeah?”

Harry nodded into Louis’ chest and let himself be dragged to his feet. And that is how Louis ended his night in a way he would have never in a million years have guessed, helping pop sensation, omega and his mate Harry Styles sneak out the back of a club to avoid the awaiting paparazzi.


	4. Chapter 4

Harry woke to a quiet murmur of voices. He furrowed his brow in confusion and slowly blinked his eyes open. Only to be met with a bedroom that he definitely hadn’t been in before. He swept his gaze over the wrinkled blue sheets, the clothes thrown haphazardly over a chair in the corner, the plain white walls with a bulletin board brimming with pictures. He gasped in a breath at the crinkled blue eyes smiling back at him from the photos. Right. Louis. He was in Louis’ bedroom. Memories from last night flooded back to him, ending with Louis tucking him into his bed. The last thing Harry remembered was Louis’ fingers gently playing with his curls, the quiet humming of Louis’ voice.

He felt like his heart should start pounding, panicked thoughts starting their race through his head. The panic never came, though. The sheets smelled of Louis and he could now clearly distinguish one of the voices as Louis’ high pitch and he surprised himself when a happy smile found its way on his face. That was his mate sitting out there. His alpha, who had taken care of him, just like Harry had always dreamed of. And in that moment Harry let himself push all the thoughts that made the situation a nightmare aside, allowing himself a moment of giddy happiness over his dreams of finding his mate coming true.

Suddenly feeling much too far away from his mate, Harry stumbled out of the bed and softly padded down the hallway towards the quiet clinking of what he assumed was the kitchen. He peaked into the room and felt his face light up in a small smile when he caught sight of Louis’ back, draped in a ratty t-shirt that hung of his slender frame. He awkwardly cleared his throat and Louis spun around, a smile breaking out on his face, and hurried over to Harry nervously shuffling his feet in the doorway.

“Morning, curly.” Louis let his fingers graze Harry’s bare arm and Harry instinctively leaned into the barely there touch.

“Morning.” Harry’s voice was scratchy and he felt himself blushing when it had Louis swallowing loudly.

Louis hesitated for a moment before he stepped even closer to Harry and murmured quietly in his ear, not being able to stop his hand from reaching out to twine through Harry’s curls, “How are you feeling? Sleep well?”

Harry nodded his head. “Yeah, okay. Better, I think.”

Louis gave a small, relieved smile. “That’s good, yeah? Want some breakfast?”

At Harry’s nod, Louis turned around and laced their fingers together to lead Harry further into the kitchen. Harry was almost too busy marveling at how Louis’ small hand fit into his palm to notice Louis talking.

“Sorry, we don’t have any fancy stuff, ‘m kind of hopeless in the kitchen, but we do have an exceptionally extensive assortment of cereal…”

Harry couldn’t really hear the rest of what Louis was saying, his eyes catching on the man sitting at the kitchen table munching quietly at a bowl of cereal and seemingly engrossed in the comic book in front of him – except there was no way he could have missed Harry’s and Louis’ exchange just now. Their – Harry thought back to it with dread – pretty intimate exchange. The inability to come up with a believable explanation for why Harry was even in Louis' flat in the first place nevertheless cosying up to someone very, very male and very, very alpha had Harry stopping in his tracks. Louis looked at him over his shoulder and followed his gaze to the small table. He turned towards Harry and gestured at the man who was now looking at Harry with curious eyes that had Harry’s skin crawling and his breathing picking up.

“Oh, Harry, this is my flat mate and best friend Liam. Liam, Harry.” Louis gestured between them and bit his lip nervously when he glanced at Harry, noticing Harry’s stiffened posture. Harry wanted to run out of the room – preferably back to the safety of the bed that smelled comfortingly of Louis – but he couldn’t make himself let go of Louis’ hand, instead squeezing it with what was surely a painfully tight grip.

Liam nodded at Harry with a kind smile. “Nice to meet you, man.”

Harry looked at him with big eyes, all he could think of his face plastered over the afternoon tabloids, headlines screaming about _omega Harry Styles_. Needing to get _away, away, away,_ he felt himself rip his hand out of Louis' and stumble out of the kitchen and back into the bedroom.

He was already pacing the room by the time Louis caught up to him. Before Louis could say anything, Harry turned to him and blurted out a desperate, “Does he know?”

Louis furrowed his brow and glanced between Harry and the closed door behind him. Harry could hear his voice rising in pitch but was unable to stop it, “Did you tell him?”

Louis was looking at Harry with a nervous look on his face that Harry was too busy freaking out to notice. When he answered, his voice came out timid, “About…?”

Harry gesticulated wildly between them, distantly recognizing he was approaching hysterical. Louis’ face fell and he let out a small, “Should I not have?”

At Louis’ broken voice, Harry stopped in his tracks and snapped his eyes to focus on his mate, his heart breaking at the thought of putting the almost frightened look in Louis’ eyes. He reached out a hand helplessly. “Lou…”

Louis kept looking at Harry with sad eyes that made Harry want to cry. He shrugged his shoulder, biting his lip. “It’s just, I was so happy. To find you. I’m sorry if… You can leave, if you want. Me and Liam won’t say anything to anyone, promise.”

Harry stumbled over to Louis and grabbed his hand. “No, no, I don’t want to leave. I promise, Lou, I don’t.”

Louis let out a tired sigh. “I just don't understand. One minute you want to come home with me, saying you don't want to leave me, and the next you're acting like you don't want anything to do with me?”

Harry felt awful for making his mate think Harry didn't want him and hurried to try to reassure him. “It's not... I do want to be with you, I promise I do. I-I was really happy when I woke up and like, it smelled like you.” Harry blushed at his confession, but let out a relieved smile when Louis' face softened.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It's just...” Harry frowned and his gaze fell to their linked hands. He swallowed heavily, his voice going shaky at the words he forced out. “It’s going to ruing everything.”

Harry felt Louis stiffen next to him. “What do you mean?”

Harry looked helplessly up at Louis, shaking his head and biting his lip.

“Harry? Love, what do you mean?”

Louis' eyes were focused on Harry and he dropped his gaze to avoid looking at his mate when he murmured out his biggest fear into the small space between them, “Nobody’s going to buy my records when they find out I’m omega.”

“Who said that?” Louis’ voice was suddenly sharp and Harry snapped his head back up to meet his fierce gaze. “Did your label tell you that?”

Harry shrunk under Louis’ glare and he shrugged his shoulders and mumbled, “… and management. And PR. Like, everyone knows that omegas…”

Louis grabbed Harry’s chin to force their eyes to meet and interrupted Harry, “Everyone knows what? They think you can’t be successful if people know you're omega?”

Harry stepped back, averting his eyes from Louis’ fierce gaze. Louis ducked his head to meet his eyes. “Harry, you know that’s not true, right?”

When Harry just stared at him, moving to hug himself tightly, Louis’ gaze softened and his voice when he spoke next came out soft. “Harry, you know that’s not true, right?”

Harry shrugged his shoulders, worried he would burst into tears if he tried to say anything. After a long moment of silence, Louis tugged Harry over to the bed and pushed him to sit down, sitting himself down next to Harry and angling his body towards him. Harry grabbed the hem of his shirt to play with nervously. Louis reached to thumb gently over Harry's wrist, the soft touch calming Harry enough to release his tight grip on the fabric.

“They’re wrong, okay? They’re so wrong.” Louis’ voice rose when Harry started shaking his head. “You weren’t an alpha when you won the X-Factor, were you? Everyone loved you then. Everyone loved _you_. Because you were sweet and charming and talented and you did a mean rendition of “Torn”. Those people will still love you, it doesn't matter if you're alpha or omega, you're still _you_. Fuck them for making you believe...”

Louis’ rant was interrupted by the loud ringtone of Harry’s phone. Knowing without a doubt that it was management calling to have his head for the missed pap walk of the previous night, Harry shot to his feet and hurried over to where his phone had been placed on the nightstand, his heart in his throat.

A clipped phone conversation telling Harry in no uncertain terms to get his ass down to an emergency meeting at management's offices, Harry's nervous rambling of an explanation to Louis, Louis' declaration of “no way would he let those assholes anywhere near Harry by himself” followed by a string of profanities, and Harry's relieved acceptance of Louis' show of support later found them sitting in a tense silence in Louis' car, Harry a bundle of nerves at the thought of the impending meeting.


	5. Chapter 5

They were sitting in a bland conference room at Harry’s management company’s downtown offices, Louis clenching his jaw to stop himself from biting someone’s head off – preferably the man in the ugly ass suit who kept making snide remarks that had Harry shrinking further and further in on himself. They hadn’t even given Harry a chance to sit down before starting their rant, and had barely glanced at Louis slipping determinedly into the seat next to his mate. Louis was fuming. Ugly Suit and his cronies were playing on all of Harry’s insecurities, carelessly beating down his omega status and using his eagerness to please against him. The only thing stopping Louis from having it at them was the promise he had made Harry on the way over to not get involved.

When the suggestion of a scandal involving a sex tape and three up and coming models entered the discussion and Harry just bit his lip and nodded dejectedly, Louis couldn’t stay quiet any longer, his need to take care of his omega all he could think about.

“No fucking way are you doing that!”

Every pair of eyes in the room snapped to look at him. Ugly Suit focused his eyes on him for the first time in twenty minutes and let out a bored sounding drawl that had Louis’ blood boiling even worse than it had been up until that point.

“And who the hell are you?”

Louis could feel Harry pulling at his sleeve and gave him a quick look to comfort his mate before he turned back to Ugly Suit and let out a threatening growl he hadn’t thought himself capable of up until that moment.

“I’m his…!”

Before Louis could finish, Harry clapped a hand over his mouth and let out a loud, “Nobody!”

Louis turned to look at Harry with an indignant scowl. Harry was breathing heavily and his eyes were wide, his gaze flicking widely between Louis and Ugly Suit. Before Louis could process what was going on, Harry’s gaze hardened in the split of a second and before Louis knew what was happening, he was being dragged out of the conference room and into one of the toilets at the end of the hall. When Harry finally let go of him with a hard push, all the anger that had built up in Louis since they arrived had him let out a high pitched, “What the hell is your problem?”

Harry pushed at him, having him stumble backwards. “ _My_ problem? What the hell is _your_ problem? You almost told them!”

Louis looked at him incredulously. “Yes? What? Were you not going to?”

Harry almost exploded at that, “No! Are you fucking crazy? I told you, it will ruin everything!”

Louis stumbled back at Harry’s words. “Then what the fuck am I doing here? I’m supposed to be your mate! You’d rather keep prancing around with every model they throw your way?”

The jealousy that was crawling under Louis’ skin at the thought had his voice rising, his high pitch a sharp contrast to Harry’s low, angry, “You don’t fucking get it!”

“What, Harry? What don’t I fucking get?”

Harry shook his head, angry tears in his eyes. “They. Decide. Everything. They want me to be alpha? I’m alpha. They want a sex scandal? There’ll be a sex scandal. That’s just how it works.”

Harry seemed to deflate and Louis looked at him, his own anger dissipating. He reached out a tentative hand towards Harry. “Harry, no. It doesn’t have to be like that.”

Harry let out a humourless laugh that felt so out of character to even Louis who barely knew him and he suddenly wanted to cry at the empty look in Harry’s eyes. “Of course it is. You heard them, my contract was for two albums, they won’t sign the new contracts if I mess up.”

Louis looked at Harry with sad eyes and hesitantly shuffled closer to him. “Would that be so bad? They’re royal dickheads, you could do so much better.”

Harry let out a huff. “Don’t be stupid, it doesn’t work like that.”

Louis reached out a comforting hand, but Harry took a step back, leaving Louis’ arm to fall uselessly to his side. Harry let out a sigh.

“Just, I have to get back, they’re probably so pissed I just stormed out like that.” He shook his head tiredly. “Could you just, please just wait in the car, please?”

Louis nodded his head numbly and watched as Harry shuffled out of the bathroom with hunched shoulders. Standing alone in the harsh light of the small bathroom, Louis had to blink away sudden tears. Everything was a mess. Having calmed down, he thought back to his actions with a sinking feeling. Harry had told him not to say anything and he had been _this close_ to fighting the man that essentially decided Harry’s future. And considering how freaked out Harry had been about Louis telling Liam, his best friend, kind and understanding, completely trustworthy Liam, about them, Louis couldn’t believe he had almost blurted it out to a room full of hostile strangers in his fit of anger. He was such a sucky alpha. No wonder Harry was pissed at him, he would be, too. Thinking he knew best, pushing his nose into stuff he didn’t know anything about, all under the guise of caring for his omega, when really, he had just acted like a possessive shit.

Louis kept berating himself as he made his way to his car. He guessed he should be grateful that Harry hadn’t just told him to fuck off, still wanting anything to do with Louis. Alone in the car with his thoughts, he vowed to be a better alpha to Harry if Harry gave him the chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the angst fest, I did not plan for the boys to have a fight like that, but emotions were running high and neither of them know what they are doing, so they took it out on each other, and I just had to run with it even though it made me so sad to write :( But I promise the next chapters are going to move from all the angst to have some more fluff to balance it out a bit :) Also, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, big hugs to everyone who leaves comments and/or kudos. It's so nice to know you guys are liking the story so far and it really helps me stay motivated and keep writing <3


	6. Chapter 6

They had been tiptoeing around each other all day, barely saying a word ever since returning to Louis’ flat. Louis was in his room and Harry was sitting curled up in the corner of the couch, unsuccessfully trying to distract himself with reruns of _Friends_. The meeting had been such a disaster and he was just so tired of it all. After he had gone back, it had been made very clear to him that he was on extremely thin ice and he would do wise to not cause any more trouble. And Louis. Louis, who had tried to help and – Harry was sure of it – meant well, but just didn’t understand. But still. He couldn’t believe he had snapped like that. Harry didn’t know Louis very well yet, but he was already pretty sure that being as quiet as he had been since them returning was not like him at all. Louis was probably already regretting bothering with Harry, Harry being nothing but trouble. Louis deserved so much better than a messed up omega like Harry. He kept glancing at the door to Louis’ room, his fear of Louis telling him to leave keeping him from leaving his spot on the couch.

It was almost four and a half episodes later when Louis hesitantly padded into the living room and came to a stop in front of the couch, awkwardly clearing his throat.

“Hey.”

Harry bit his lip nervously, “Hey.”

Harry’s gaze followed cautiously as Louis sat down at the opposite end of the couch with a questioning glance at Harry. Harry watched him steel himself and take a deep breath to speak, Harry’s nerves having him shift hurriedly towards him and blurt out quickly, “I’m sorry.”

Louis furrowed his brow. “What for?”

Harry twisted his fingers in the hem of his – well, Louis’ – shirt. “For yelling at you like that. I didn’t mean to, I just. I panicked, I’m sorry.”

At Harry’s nervous look, Louis scooted closer to Harry, gripping his wrist softly. “Harry, no. You had every right to yell at me. _I’m_ the one who’s sorry, I had no right to say anything to those people.”

Harry squirmed under Louis’ gaze, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with his alpha apologizing to _him_. He looked down to escape the imploring look and murmured, “’s fine.”

“No, it really isn’t.” Louis moved to squeeze Harry’s hand. “It’s not like I’ve ever had a mate before, I don’t really know what I’m doing. I was trying to help, but I should have just kept quiet. I just got so angry at them, I’m sorry. And I’m sorry if I overstepped. You’re right, I don’t know anything. And I’m sorry if it seemed like I was trying to control you like some possessive neanderthal alpha. I would never want to do that, you know that, right?”

“I don’t think that.” Harry looked at him with big eyes, not knowing how to react to Louis’ words, before furrowing his brow. “But, Louis, it’s not like you’re not allowed to say anything. You’re allowed to tell me what you think. I want you to. You’re my mate, of course I want to know what you think.”

Harry looked back down and fiddled with his fingers, feeling himself blush when he quickly admitted, “And… it’s nice, you wanting to protect me. I like that you want to do that.”

Louis blushed at his words before his expression turned serious. “I just don’t ever again want to act like I know better than you, just because I’m your alpha. I’m going to listen to you, I’m going to do better, I promise. We’ll figure things out, right?”

Harry nodded quickly, feeling relief wash over him that Louis still wanted him. “Yes, of course we will. You’re my mate.”

Louis gave him a small smile. “And you are mine. And I _never_ want to treat you like you’re inferior just because you were born omega, okay? We’re equals in this relationship, always, you need to know that.”

At Louis’ pleading voice, Harry snapped his head back up to look at him, a warm feeling spreading in his body at Louis referring to them as a _relationship_. Harry wasn’t sure if Louis had even noticed the word slip out, and maybe it was a bit early to be calling it that, but it made his heart beat just a tiny bit faster in glee. He gave a tiny nod. “Okay.”

Louis pushed his curls from his face gently. “I just want you to be happy, yeah? I want to make you happy.”

Harry blushed and a small, happy smile spread over his face. Louis moved his arm to drape it over Harry’s shoulders in a gentle hug. Harry, suddenly feeling exhausted after the stress of the day, slumped against Louis’ side and Louis shifted to let Harry curl into his arms. Harry let out a content sigh and burrowed further into Louis’ hold, already finding it his favourite place in the world.

He mumbled shyly into Louis’ shirt, “Can we just stay like this for a while? ‘s nice.”

Louis tightened his hold on him. “Of course, love.”

It was another two episodes later before Harry voiced his thoughts hesitantly, not being able to forget Louis’ words from that morning.

“I want to believe you.”

Louis shifted under him and moved to look down at him. “Hmm?”

“When you said that people would still like me if they knew. That they would still buy my records even if they knew I was omega. And that if I left my label… someone, someone _nicer_ would want me and I could still sell lots of records and people would still want to come to my shows.”

Louis was quiet, brushing his fingers soothingly through Harry’s curls as Harry spoke. After a moment of silence, Harry added, “And I want to tell the whole world about you and how happy I am that I found you. I’m just so tired of hiding.”

Harry let out a tired sigh and curled back into Louis. Just when he was starting to think Louis wouldn’t say anything, he spoke, his voice slow, like he was contemplating whether to speak or not.

“Can I ask you something?”

Harry turned to meet his eyes and nodded, assuring him. “Of course.”

“What do you like about what you do?”

Harry was taken aback by the question, but at Louis’ serious look, he gave it serious thought.

“I-I like… singing to people, and making them happy. Sharing that moment with them. And making songs, and knowing that there are people out there listening to them and liking them. And…” Harry hesitated, feeling insecure about revealing the next part, “…and I like writing songs, and feeling like it’s a part of who I am that is like, on that paper and in the words and in the melody, and… yeah.”

Louis looked at him in surprise. “You write your own songs?”

Harry blushed. “Yeah. Just… Well, not in a while. The label doesn’t think they’re commercial enough, won’t sell as much as the stuff they want me to sing. Haven’t really felt like it if nobody’s gonna here them anyway.”

Harry shrugged sadly. Louis grabbed his face gently in his hands. “I bet they’re lovely.” He gave Harry an encouraging smile. “I’d love to hear them, sometime.”

Harry shrugged his shoulders, not knowing if he would have the courage to let Louis. His songs were so personal to him and showing them to anyone made him feel so vulnerable. He could still remember walking into one of his first recording sessions with his notebook clutched nervously in his hands. It had been a mistake, showing his scribbles to the men tasked with writing him a hit single, his innermost thoughts having been brushed off so quickly it barely had time to hurt.

Sensing Harry wasn’t going to say anything more on the topic, Louis picked the conversation back up, his voice even more hesitant now.

“So, what if they’re right?”

Harry snapped his head to look at Louis with wide eyes. “What do you mean?”

Louis chose his words carefully. “Well, they’ve created this public persona to get you to constantly be in the headlines and they manufacture these songs that are made to be hits that appeal to as many people as possible. They just try to make as much money off of you as possible and clearly they think you can’t be omega for that to happen. So what if you did things the way you wanted, and you wrote your own songs, and, if you wanted, you could be open about who you are, and us, if you wanted that. I really believe that people would like you just as much, maybe even more, because it would be _you_ , but what if you didn’t sell as many records then?”

Harry blinked at him, not knowing what to say. “I don’t want to be a failure!”

At this point Harry didn’t know how Louis managed to make his voice sound even more gentle than it already was. “You will never, _ever_ be a failure. How many records you sell is not a measure of your worth. Even if you weren’t the best selling artist topping all the charts, if you were happy, making the kind of music that you want to make, being who you want to be, that is not failing.”

Harry didn’t know what to think, never having considered anything beyond the mantras of success drilled into him from the beginning. _Number 1, topping the charts, record breaking debut._ Louis looked at him quietly.

“You need to do what feels right to _you_. If it's really important to you to sell as many records as possible, then you try to do that, and maybe that means you keep doing what your label wants you to. If you want to be yourself, write your own music, then you do that. And maybe you'll sell just as many records, maybe you won't. That's not really what's most important, though. And you can still be successful, it might just be successful in a different way. And both are just as valid, it’s what you choose is important to _you_.”

Harry leaned back into Louis’ chest, his head spinning. What if he didn’t sell as many records, win as many awards, top all the charts? He wanted people to like him, and his music, of course he wanted that. He wanted to reach as many people as he could with his music. But was it really him, and his music, that people were liking? If he could be himself, and write the music he liked, then wouldn’t that mean more, even if less people liked it? Except, maybe nobody would want to hear the songs he wrote. And maybe people wouldn’t like him, the real him. But maybe somebody would. Or maybe Louis was right and people would still like him.

“It would be nice, if I could play my own songs.”

Louis had gone back to stroking his curls, but stilled his hand when Harry spoke. “Yeah?”

Harry just couldn’t imagine it working out. Everything he had been told since entering the music industry at sixteen was telling him it wasn’t possible. How could he even consider risking everything he had worked so hard for, the support of his label, management? The thought of standing up to them had his stomach in immediate knots. What if they told him to just fuck off and then he would have nothing? Having no idea how to make it on his own? Although, it would be nice not having to agree to all the tabloid stories they fed the press about him. The thought reminded him of what had been decided at the meeting earlier.

His voice was shaky when he spoke, “I don’t want people thinking I made a sex tape with three girls.”

Louis hugged him closer. “We could talk to Liam, if you wanted to. He knows tons of people, I bet he would know what to do. If you decided you want to change things.”

Harry bit his lip. “I don’t know.”

Louis nodded. “That’s okay. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I just wanted you to feel like you have options, like they can’t force you to do something you don’t want to. I’ll support you no matter what you decide is best for you.”

At that, Harry looked at Louis and furrowed his brow. “Best for us. It’s us, now.” He fiddled with his fingers. “I don’t want you to have to hide, you deserve so much better than all of this.”

Louis gave him a soft smile. “I have you, don’t I? That’s all I want.”

Harry huffed out a pleased laugh. “Sap.”

Harry’s tone was teasing, but he still looked to Louis with a hint of nervousness, waiting to see how he would react.

Louis let out an indignant huff. “Excuse you, Haz, trying to be a good mate, here. Proper romantic I am!”

Harry blushed at the nickname and ducked his head. Louis pulled gently at his curls and Harry lifted his head to meet his eyes. Before he could chicken out, he ducked in to place a gentle kiss on Louis’ cheek and murmured quietly, “Thank you.”

Louis’ surprised smile and the blush spreading over his cheeks had Harry’s stomach filling with butterflies and he shyly ducked back in to curl himself into Louis’ waiting arms, the two of them content to curl up against each other, the only sound the silent chatter from episode after episode of _Friends_ playing quietly in the background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :) I hope all the heavy talk wasn't too much, I tried splitting the chapter up, but it just didn't work, so I just dumped it all on you at once. Please make me happy and let me know if you liked it :)
> 
> A couple of disclaimers: I don't really know much about how the music industry works, so if my portrayal is not very realistic, please try to ignore it for the sake of the story I want to tell. Louis' advice may seem naive to some, and maybe someone more knowing of the industry would tell me off for being an idealist, but at the end of the day, if reality sucks, then I don't want to write about a reality like that, but about a world where it is possible to choose your own path. I am struggling in my own choice of profession between staying true to who I want to be and the expectations and pressures of others, and I think it's so important to encourage people to do what feels right to them.
> 
> Also, despite having come to realize that I am definitely not 100% straight, I don't feel like I have really experienced what it feels like to be in the closet, so I apologize if my portrayal of being closeted is inaccurate. I do have other aspects of who I am that I have felt that I need to hide in fear of being rejected, and I am drawing on those feelings for my writing. I hope I'm not misrepresenting what must be a very difficult and painful experience - and again, if the world sucks, then I'm going to write about a better world, because I want to believe in a world where it is okay to be honest about who you are.
> 
> (edited to make some small changes to Louis' advice, I felt like what I was trying to say didn't really come through. Still not sure I'm able to articulate it correctly, but I think it's more clear now.)


	7. Chapter 7

Louis was sweating like crazy, stressing himself out of his mind. Who knew cooking could induce this level of panic? Harry had been at the recording studio all afternoon and Louis had wanted to surprise him. For the past week, Harry had only left Louis’ flat for a couple of meetings, basically having moved in and lounging aimlessly around in Louis’ sweats. They hadn’t really talked about Harry’s career since the previous weekend, Louis still  worried he had said too much and not wanting to influence whatever Harry was thinking any further. He had come home one night to Harry talking to Liam, and had had to refrain himself from asking what they had talked about, trusting Liam to be a sounding board for Harry and Harry to come to him if he wanted Louis' advice.

This morning Louis had finally convinced Harry to leave the flat. Harry had argued that going to the studio  to write was pointless when nobody there asked for his input anyway. Louis hoped that the creative atmosphere of the place would inspire Harry to start writing again. And it was the weekend, so hopefully Harry would have some space for himself to play around with ideas.

It also got Harry out of the flat so Louis could prepare his surprise for his mate. After the hiccups of those first couple of days, they were getting along so amazingly well Louis could barely believe it. Liam kept teasing them about being attached at the hip, but Louis couldn’t even grumble about it, because they really were. It was just so easy. Louis supposed that’s how it was with a mate, they just clicked. And the more they got to know each other, the more he liked Harry. Harry was goofy, and funny, and so, so smart, and the more often Louis was able to make him let out his honk of a laugh – which Louis did not find the most endearing thing ever, thank you very much, except he was so whipped and he totally did – the more Louis relaxed around him, them just laughing and teasing and just talking, talking, talking about the silliest things and the deepest things and everything in between for hours and hours.

So here Louis was, wanting to do something special for the boy he already cared more about than probably anyone else. For all the time they had spent together, being confined to hiding out in Louis’ flat didn’t really lend itself to romance. Louis liked that they were getting to know each other, taking things slow, but it was becoming a routine that it seemed neither of them knew how to break out of, them stealing shy glances at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking, and quickly turning away when they got caught.

Which was why Louis had decided that he was going to woo Harry. Which was why there was chicken cooking in the pan and mashed potatoes in the making and candles ready to light at the table.

Louis was busy cursing his lack of cooking skills, when the door to the flat slammed and Harry’s voice yelled out a cheery greeting.

“Hello? Lou?”

“Shit.” Louis rushed over to the table to light the candles just as Harry entered the kitchen.

“Lou, hey, what’re you…?”

Harry stopped in his tracks, staring wide eyed at the chaos in the kitchen. Louis looked sheepishly at him.

“Hey, Haz. You’re home already?”

“Yeah.” Harry answered him distractedly, peering curiously towards the food on the stove behind Louis. “Whatcha doing?”

Louis huffed and complained with a whine. “You weren’t supposed to be home yet, I was going to surprise you with dinner.”

Harry’s eyes lit up. “Really? You made dinner? For me?”

Louis shrugged his shoulders, feeling embarrassed under Harry’s scrutiny. “Well, yeah.”

Harry stepped over to him and wrapped his arms around him, ignoring Louis’ protests of getting his clothes covered in sweat and food stains.

“Thank you. I can’t believe that you went to all this trouble for me.” Harry smiled into his neck before he lifted his head and tried to peek over Louis’ shoulder. “What did you make?”

At the question, Louis puffed out his chest, feeling proud of himself for making his mate so happy – and maybe a little bit for not burning down the kitchen and actually managing to finish the food, the result looking alright. He led Harry over to the stove and let Harry peer down.

“Chicken stuffed with mozzarella wrapped in parma ham with a side of homemade mash.”

Louis swore there were actual stars in Harry’s eyes, which made all the trouble totally worth it and then some. When Harry grabbed his phone and told Louis to stand by the stove, Louis huffed but complied easily after Harry exclaimed wanting to remember the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for him – a statement that had Louis blushing and internally promising himself to outdo himself a million times over if it meant making Harry happy.

***

They had finished dinner, Harry having gushed over the food way more than the taste warranted, which had made Louis blush every time, and were curled up together on the couch when Louis finally hesitantly asked about Harry’s day, hoping he wasn’t overstepping, but curious and slightly worried why Harry hadn’t said anything about it yet. To his surprise, Harry blushed and ducked his head, his curls falling in his face and hiding whatever expression he was sporting from Louis.

“I wrote a song about you.”

Louis startled at the words and looked with big eyes at Harry peering insecurely up at him. “Yeah?”

Harry nodded shyly. “Mhm.”

“Wow. Really?” Louis was pretty sure he was looking a bit dumbstruck and definitely even more overwhelmingly pleased than his chicken had made Harry look, which made sense since a song definitely trumped food. “Can I hear it?”

Harry’s gaze flicked down and he bit his lip. “Um, it’s not really finished, and…”

Louis quickly reassured him. “It’s okay. Maybe when it’s ready?” _When you’re ready_ , left unsaid between them. “I’m glad you’re writing again.”

Harry let out a small smile. “Yeah. Me too.” He hesitated, before rushing out, “It’s called Sweet Creature.”

Louis felt like he couldn’t smile any bigger if he tried and pulled Harry closer against him. “Yeah? That’s me?”

Harry bit his lip nervously. “Yeah.”

Louis grabbed Harry’s hand to play with his fingers, feeling like he just needed to touch Harry and never let go. His voice when he spoke was teasing yet gentle.

“Making me sound a bit like some weird bug.”

Harry honked out a surprised laugh and Louis gave himself an internal back pat. “Nooo, don’t ruin it! It’s a love song!”

At Harry’s words, whatever joke Louis had been about to make left his mind and his smile softened. “Yeah?”

Louis brushed at Harry’s curls framing his face and let his fingers linger on Harry’s cheek. Harry’s happy giggles quieted and he looked at Louis with big eyes. Louis’ eyes flickered down to Harry’s lips before looking back up at Harry searchingly and leaning in closer. His voice was breathy when he spoke quietly into the space between them.

“Is this okay?”

Harry nodded his head quickly, his eyes flicking down to Louis’ lips and back up to look at Louis. When Louis saw nothing but trust in them, he leaned forward and gently pressed his lips against Harry’s _soft, soft_ lips. Later, Harry would say it had felt like coming home and like two puzzle pieces slotting together and Louis would tease him about being a sap before agreeing and trying to persuade Harry to write a song about it.

When Louis pulled back, Harry’s eyes fluttered open to look at him in awe. Louis cupped his face and smiled softly before he couldn’t help himself leaning down to press their lips back together. Harry melted against him and Louis tightened his hold on him, letting Harry press himself closer against him, neither of them wanting any space between them.

When their kisses slowed down to small pecks, Harry leaned back to look up at Louis and murmured quietly.

“ _Don’t know where we’re going, but we know where we belong_.”

Harry was looking at Louis nervously after softly singing the notes. Louis was still dazed from _Harry, Harry, Harry_ and had to shake himself out of his stupor before he realised that those were lyrics from Harry’s song. A realisation that promptly had him surge forward to kiss his mate. When he pulled back to thank Harry for trusting him enough to share the words with him, Harry was blushing and smiling and let out in a more confident voice.

“ _Oh, we started, two hearts in one home_.”

This time Louis barely gave Harry time to finish before he leaned forward to give him another kiss and a string of praises and proud exclamations. Harry looked like he wanted to protest Louis’ enthusiastic gushing over the snippet of a song, but seemed to reconsider and just leaned forward to press their lips together to quiet Louis. When he pulled back, he looked straight at Louis while he sang with a smile on his lips.

” _Sweet creature, sweet creature, wherever I go, you bring me home_.”

Louis wanted to swoon. The only thing stopping him from clutching his heart was his hands being preoccupied holding his precious, precious omega. He looked at Harry. “You are amazing.”

Harry blushed. “ _You_ are amazing.”

Louis conceded with a wise nod, “We are amazing.”

They smiled goofily at each other before Harry leaned back down to curl himself contentedly in Louis’ arms. They ended the evening quietly curled up together on the couch, the words Harry had sung playing over and over in Louis’ head, Louis marveling at how this amazing boy was his to love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for cherry picking lines from Harry's song. I really wanted to use lyrics from one of his songs, but none of them completely fit with the story, so I kind of just picked the lines that fit the best. Thanks as always to everyone reading, hope you liked us finally getting to some fluff :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally finished another chapter, I've been a bit busy, but I'm now on holidays, so hopefully I'll have plenty of time and inspiration to write! As always, massive thank yous to all my lovely readers and especially big hugs to all of you who comment and let me know you are liking my little story, in moments of no inspiration wanting to finish the story for all you lovely people is the one thing that keeps me writing <3 Hope you like this newest chapter :)

Harry was vibrating with nervous energy waiting for Louis to come home from work. He had been in the studio all day with Liam and Niall, one of the guys from his band that he had hesitantly asked to help him record some instrumentals for a demo of a song for him. Niall had turned out not only to be massively talented with a number of instruments that was beyond impressive, but also the nicest guy ever once Harry let his guard down around him and showed him and Liam the song he wanted to record.

When the door to the flat  _finally, finally_ clicked open, Harry pounced on Louis before he had even taken his shoes of, curling himself tight around his mate and burying his face in Louis’ neck to try to draw some calming comfort from his smell.

Louis chuckled, “Well, hello to you, too.”

Harry just tightened his hold on Louis, suddenly feeling overwhelmed about all the emotions racing through his mind, the enormousness of the situation suddenly hitting him and feelings of worry breaking through the frantic excitement he had been in since that morning. Louis, after some resistance from Harry, managed to pull back enough to look worriedly at him.

“Hey, hey, love. What’s going on?”

Harry blurted out quickly, before his nerves could talk him out of it. “I wrote a song. I recorded a song. We recorded a song. I need to… You need to…”

Giving up on explaining himself, he just dragged Louis to the kitchen table, where his laptop was already open and waiting. Without a word, he pressed play, the slow, melancholy piano chords of the opening notes filling the room.

Harry kept his eyes nervously glued to Louis the whole time. Despite what Liam and Niall had said, hearing Louis’ opinion felt like the only thing that mattered. He watched Louis’ expression change from nervous expectation that matched Harry’s current state of mind to a proud smile when Harry’s voice rang out with the first lines of the song. When he reached the falsetto of the bridge, Louis’ eyes widened in awe and when the chorus kicked in with all the power of Niall’s multitalented instrumentals, Harry swore Louis’ jaw dropped. By the end of the song Louis was standing stock still, holding his breath and clutching his arms to his chest. Harry was hoping that was a good sign and as soon as the last chords of the song rang out, he nudged at Louis nervously.

“Well?”

Louis snapped his head to look at Harry with big eyes. “That was… Harry. It… Play it again.”

Harry wanted to whine impatiently, but Louis was already looking back at the screen and Harry leaned forward to click play once more.

This time, he could tell Louis was listening to the lyrics, his eyes narrowed and unseeing as he took in the words that Harry had scribbled in his notebook and put into music. At Harry’s plea of _Why_ _are we always stuck and running from, the bullets, the bullets?_ Louis teared up and when Harry belted out _Stop your crying, baby, it'll be alright, they told me that the end is near, we gotta get away from here_ Louis drew in a sharp breath. As Harry’s deperate repetion of _We got to get away_ closed the song, Louis reached out to touch Harry like he needed to comfort his mate. Harry hadn’t realised quite how desperate his pleas sounded until he saw his mate’s reaction to listening to them.

As the song ended, they stood in the quiet of the kitchen. When Louis didn’t say anything, Harry started playing nervously with his fingers.

”I know it’s still a bit rough, it’s just a demo, so it doesn’t really sound like it’s supposed to yet...”

Louis interrupted Harry quickly. ”No, no, that was... _Harry_. That was amazing! Seriously. I can’t believe... I mean, I knew you were good, but that was... _Harry_.”

Harry let out a relieved breath. ”So, you liked it?”

Louis looked at him incredulously. ”I think _liked_ is the understatement of the century. Haz, I loved it! Really, really loved it.”

Harry let out a pleased smile that quickly turned into a sad frown when Louis’ expression turned serious and he hesitantly continued, ”It’s just... It sounded a bit sad? I don’t like hearing you sound sad.”

Harry’s frown disappeared and he rushed to try to explain. ”Oh. No, it’s not like that. Well, I guess it is, a bit. But it’s a good sad?”

He sat down on one of the chairs and pulled Louis close to him so he could lean his head against his chest and play with the buttons of his shirt.

”I was thinking about what you said, about choosing what’s important to me. And I wrote this. And I guess it’s a mix of a bunch of things, but mostly I just felt like I can’t do it anymore.”

Louis nodded in understanding. ”You want to get away?”

”Yeah. I don’t want to do it like this anymore. I want to do things the way that feels right to me.”

Louis let out a proud smile. ”Really?”

Harry nodded. ”Yeah. I want to write my own songs. And I don’t want to pretend to date a bunch of girls for attention anymore.”

Harry jumped to his feet and let his excitement from earlier bubble out of him. ”I want to wear nail polish. And I want to grow my hair out. And I want to wear pink shirts and I want my album cover to be all pink and I want to walk on the street holding your hand and not care about people seeing us. And I want to sing this song.”

As Harry was talking, Louis’ smile grew until he couldn’t help himself throwing himself at Harry and hugging him tightly.

”I am so, so proud of you, baby.”

Harry squirmed out of his hold, too giddy to stand still. Louis grabbed his arms and his expression turned serious.

”You’re sure this is what you want, though? It’s probably not going to be easy.”

Harry nodded his head vehemently. ”Yeah, I’m sure. I’m not gonna sign the new contracts, I talked to Liam and he’s going to help me, and Zayn got me a meeting at his label, and I have all these ideas for songs, and...”

Louis laughed at Harry’s excited rambling. ”That’s great, love. I’m so happy for you. You’re going to be great, I know you will.”

Harry gave him a soft smile. ”Thanks, Lou. It means a lot that you believe in me. I couldn’t do this without you.”

”Of course you could. But you don’t have to, because I’m right here.” Louis leveled him with a serious look. ”You’re stronger than you think, Harry Styles.”

Harry hugged him tight. ”You make me strong.”

Later that night, after Louis had insisted Harry play his song for him four more times, Louis dragged Harry to their now shared bedroom, mumbling cheeky lines about rewarding his omega for being so brave that had Harry giggling and then moaning when Louis pressed up against him. They stumbled into bed ripping their clothes of, Harry feeling more at ease than he could remember feeling since presenting as omega. And that night he was finally able to let go of the niggling worries in his mind and let himself just be himself, soaking up the adoration his mate was showing him and falling asleep tangled up in his alpha's arms, the warmth of Louis' skin a comfort pressed up against his naked back.

 


	9. Chapter 9

“I want to go on a date.”

Harry had sprung the words on Louis one morning at the kitchen table when Louis had been drowsily sipping on his tea, barely awake. Louis had quickly learned that his mate liked to be showered with affection and was more than happy to spoil the omega, but had pretended to hum distractedly into his tea.

“Yeah? Why don’t you plan something, eh?

Harry had pouted and batted his eyelashes at Louis until Louis had let out a suffering sigh followed by a teasing smile and promised Harry the best date ever, which had led to a forgotten tea in favour of some excellent morning sex, if Louis did say so himself.

They had both known a date meant possibly – scratch that, probably, most certainly – being spotted by at least one of Harry’s enthusiastic fans. Even though Harry had decided to step away from the spotlight since his contract ended and take his time to discover what he wanted to do and be as an artist, his fans vigilantly kept up with every hint of a sign from the star that had disappeared almost completely from the public eye, the occasional cryptic tweet the only signs of life from Harry in weeks.

And yet, here they were, about to step out of the safety of Louis’ flat, their hands clasped in a tight grip. Louis wasn’t sure whether he or Harry was holding on tighter, feeling his own nerves might have exceeded Harry’s, who seemed surprisingly more excited than nervous about potentially shattering the public persona that had been created for him any minute now.

At the door to the apartment building, Louis turned to Harry and couldn't help checking with his mate, just one more time, “You're sure? You know we don't have to.”

Harry bit his lip nervously, but nodded determinedly. “I know. I want to. I'm tired of hiding.”

Louis just nodded at his omega with a soft smile and let Harry's grip on his hand get impossibly tighter as they stepped out into the street, picnic basket dangling from Louis' other hand.

Amazingly, they made it to their destination, a small park that was one of Louis' favourite spots, without anyone disrupting them, though Louis was quite sure that at least a few girls had recognized Harry. Louis had squeezed Harry's hand comfortingly and mumbled reassurances when Harry's wide eyes had met his nervously and his hold on Louis' hand had turned almost painful.

When they spotted a secluded corner and sank down on the small picnic blanket that Louis had brought, Harry slumped down with a relieved sigh. Louis looked at his mate worriedly.

“You okay, love?”

Harry nodded his head and leaned to lie back and close his eyes. “Yeah, just... They saw us, right? It's out there now? No taking it back.”

Louis let his fingers skim soothingly over Harry's bare arm. “Do you want to take it back?”

At the words, Harry snapped his eyes open to gaze up at Louis. “No. Just... It's really out there now.”

Louis kept stroking Harry's arm, sensing his mate had more to say. To his surprise, Harry let out a laugh. “Wow, I can't believe I really... I don't need to pretend anymore!”

A big smile was spreading over Harry's face and Louis let out a relieved breath. “No, babe, you don't. No more hiding.”

Harry let out another laugh that turned into a choked sob and covered his eyes, and Louis hurried to lean over him, his hands hovering over Harry's covered face.

“Love, what's wrong? Harry? Baby, talk to me?”

Hearing the worry in Louis' voice, Harry let his hands drop and looked up at Louis with watery eyes.

“ No, it's just... a lot. A bit overwhelmed, I guess.”

Harry let out a teary laugh, and Louis dropped down to cradle Harry against him. “Of course. This is a big step. You are so brave, love. My brave, brave boy.”

Harry curled up against his alpha and mumbled into his chest, “Don't want to be scared anymore.”

Louis stroked his back comfortingly, “It's okay to be scared. You are so brave for not letting your fear stop you from doing what you want. And no matter what happens next, you’re not alone. I'm always here for you, okay, love?”

Harry nodded against Louis' chest and Louis felt him relax in his arms. He squeezed his omega gently and murmured quietly, “You okay?”

Harry sighed contentedly and curled himself even closer to his alpha. “Yeah. Can we just stay like this for a while?”

Louis wrapped him as close to his body as he could. “Of course, love.”

When Harry's grumbling stomach roused them from their peaceful almost slumber, Louis unpacked the contents of the picnic basket and tucked Harry into his side to feed a bashful Harry. As the sun moved over the sky, Harry stopped glancing around the park nervously and let himself enjoy his alpha's attention. They were finishing off the last strawberries, Louis feeding the last one to Harry, when Harry peered up at Louis with a small smile.

“I love you.”

Louis swore his heart skipped a beat before starting to beat furiously enough that he was sure Harry must have felt it tucked up against him. His face broke out into a surely foolishly looking broad grin and he looked down at his omega in awe.

“I-I, I love you, too.”

Harry's eyes lit up. “Really?”

Louis gave him a playful shove. “Yes, you goober, really.”

Their eyes locked and they smiled goofily at each other. Louis was about to bend down for a kiss, when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. A group of teenage girls had come to a stop across the lawn, obviously having recognised Harry, his reputation of stand offish alpha seeming to prevent them from approaching despite their excited whispers.

Harry let out an impatient whine and turned his head to follow Louis' gaze to the openly gawking girls. He gave them a polite nod before turning back to Louis and breathed out impatiently, “Kiss me already?”

Louis' eyes flicked back to the girls. He nodded towards them. “You're sure?”

Harry gave an impatient huff and ignored Louis’ question. He surged up to connect their lips in a rushed kiss that quickly turned from soft to heated. Louis gasped in a breath before gripping Harry’s curls tightly, just the way Harry liked it. When Harry climbed into Louis' lap and let his mouth trail kisses down Louis’ neck, Louis pulled back with a gasp, “Home?”

Louis honestly could not say whether or not the girls were still watching as they hurried to pack up the leftovers from their picnic and rushed out of the park, Harry clinging to him the whole time.

They ended up spending the rest of the day in bed, Harry whining petulantly every time Louis tried to untangle them. When Louis returned from a much overdo trip to the bathroom he found Harry sitting against the headboard, the sheets pooled around him, pale skin glowing in the warm light of the bedroom. When he heard Louis enter, he looked up from the phone he was holding with a soft smile.

Louis padded towards the bed and teased gently, “I'm not company enough? Haz, I'm wounded.”

Harry smacked him with a pillow as he wiggled back under the covers and showed him the screen.

“I thought I would tweet something, let my fans know I've been working on some new music. Thought I could post a snippet of one of the new songs for them.”

Harry looked innocently at Louis and Louis nodded before looking at the screen. His eyes widened and he looked at Harry. “Are you sure?”

Harry just nodded with a cheeky grin, all his nervousness from earlier in the day gone. “Yup. They might as well hear it from me.”

He looked searchingly at Louis. “As long as you're okay with it?”

Louis's gaze softened. “I'm very okay with it.” He grabbed Harry's face between his hands. “I love you.”

Harry grinned goofily at him. “I love you, too.”

Louis leaned in to kiss him. “Never gonna get tired of hearing that.”

Harry giggled. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

Louis leaned back in and mumbled against his lips, “I love you, too.”

They were smiling too giddily to properly kiss and Louis leaned back to gaze adoringly at his mate. His eyes fell on the phone still in Harry's hand and his expression turned serious. Harry followed his gaze to look down at the phone. After one last glance up at Louis, Harry took a deep breath and flicked at the screen. “Okay then.”

And there, for the world to see, together with a link to the snippet of a song, was a picture of the two of them, Harry curled up against Louis, gazing up at him adoringly and Louis smiling down at him softly, his fingers tangled in Harry's curls, accompanied by Harry's simple words: _My Sweet Creature._


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gaah, I can't believe it's been a month. I thought I would have time to write over the summer, but my mom was in the hospital so that didn't happen. And now I feel like I've lost my momentum a bit with this story, so this ended up being the final chapter. *sad face* Hope you guys like it :) And if you want to make a writer happy, drop a line and let me know your thoughts on the story :) 
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading and liking this story, particularly all the super lovely people who have left such nice comments that have encouraged me to keep writing <3 Big hugs and rainbow sparkles to every single one of you :)

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Harry was pacing their living room, almost making himself dizzy with the speed he was circling the couch Liam and Zayn were curled up on, wrapped up in each other to the point of very unfairly ignoring Harry's completely reasonable freak out. Niall tried to reach out for him from the bean bag on the floor, but ended up almost toppling over when Harry sped past him and continued cursing under his breath. Niall craned his neck towards the kitchen,

“Hey, Louis, think your mate needs you!”

Louis came rushing from the kitchen, unopened bear bottle in hand and skidded to a stop in front of Harry, his fingers automatically reaching out to brush against Harry's arm comfortingly.

“Haz?”

Harry let out a whine. “What if people hate it? What if nobody buys it?”

Louis had suggested gathering them all to celebrate the release of Harry’s first single – well, the first that really felt like  _his_ single. Harry had thought it was a good idea, but now he sort of regretted having three extra pairs of eyes witnessing his meltdown – though a glance towards the couch confirmed that Liam and Zayn still only had eyes for each other. 

If Harry didn’t know just how amazing his alpha was, he might have been surprised when Louis simply hugged him close and let him continue his rambling, no matter how many times in the days leading up to the release Louis had had to reassure Harry already.

“It’s almost six minutes long. It’s nothing like the stuff that’s played on the radio. It’s nothing like my first two albums. Everyone’s gonna hate it, aren’t they?”

Harry was pulling at his locks, the curls having reached almost past his shoulders since he started letting them grow out. Louis loved pulling at his curls, never failing to make Harry groan. The thought distracted Harry enough that Louis was able to pull him over to the couch and squeeze them next to Liam and Zayn, pulling Harry down into his lap and wrapping his arms securely around him. Harry allowed himself to let out a big breath and sink into Louis’ arms. Everything seemed a little better next to Louis. If only his thoughts could stop spinning a million miles per hour.

Niall piped up from the floor, “Man, the song is sick, people are crazy if they don’t see that.”

Liam looked at Harry over Zayn’s shoulder with a serious look. “You know it’s great, Harry. Everyone who’s heard it has absolutely loved it. You’re gonna do great.”

Louis peppered his face with kisses. “You hear that love, we all love it. Your fans are gonna love it. And so many people are going to hear it and fall in love with you.  _You_ . Harry Styles, singer, songwriter, best omega a guy could ever ask for.”

Harry preened at the words, before a frown overtook his face and he mumbled quietly into Louis' shirt, “They know I'm omega now, though. Might not wanna buy the music of an omega.”

Harry knew it wasn't an unreasonable fear. When his new management released a statement about Harry's omega status and confirmed Louis was not only his alpha but his mate, it had been scandalous news for days. After a frenzy of speculation after Harry's tweet all but confirmed the rumours that had started swirling as soon as he was spotted with Louis, ranging from Harry experimenting with a twinky omega boy to suggestive headlines about Harry's shameful secret omega life, the press had had a field day blowing up about Harry “bending over for his alpha” as one tabloid had crudely put it on its cover. The nicer outlets had spun a more romantic story about two mates finding each other, and a candid visit on Late Late Show that included James gushing about how cute Harry and Louis were and how happy Harry looked, as well as Harry making an impromptu statement about just wanting to be honest that had gone viral, had gone a long way to make the public more sympathetic to Harry.

Through it all, Louis had comforted Harry when he felt insecure and hid his phone when Harry had tortured himself reading tweets bashing him. Louis had even dug up a gif set on tumblr of James exclaiming “ _You seem different”_ and Harry shrugging  _“I guess I'm just me now”_ that had an overwhelming number of likes and proud exclamations of support. Still, Harry wasn't naïve and he knew that for every person out there supporting him, there was likely someone else sneering at his attempts of making it as an omega in the music business.

Harry's spiraling thoughts were interrupted by Louis pulling his chin up to meet his eyes. “You are amazing and talented, omega or not. And anyone who's close minded enough not to see that can go fuck themselves. You, Harry Styles, are great, and everyone who has even half a brain is going to love you.”

Harry smiled bashfully at the words, feeling so lucky to be surrounded by the support of his mate and his friends, before he huffed playfully, his nerves having quieted down enough that he felt slightly less out of control, “Yeah, yeah, that’s enough of flattering words.”

Louis pulled him closer and murmured against his lips, “Never enough for my amazing, amazing boy.”

Niall threw a pillow towards them. “Oi, lads, leave the face sucking for later, won’t you. It’s midnight!”

Harry sat up with a start, looking at Niall nervously. Niall had been appointed in charge of checking the charts, Louis having confiscated Harry’s phone to prevent him from going crazy refreshing the page every three seconds. Harry was pretty sure that watching Niall do it was just as nerve wracking.

Zayn leaned over to grin at Louis, “Think some face sucking might be a good distraction, eh?”

Harry whipped around to protest, but was interrupted by Louis grabbing his chin and smashing their mouths together. Harry tried to mumble about charts and streams against his lips, but was helpless to resist and melted into his alpha, letting out a content purr when Louis started sucking on his bottom lip just the way he knew Harry liked it. He was vaguely aware of Liam and Zayn following suit, Niall huffing about being abandoned before focusing back on the tiny screen lighting up his face.

By the time Louis’ kisses had melted Harry into a pliable pile of goo in his alpha’s arms, Harry had decided that it almost didn’t matter how many copies his song sold. Almost. He let his eyes flutter open and lazily turned to Niall, his frantic heart beat having calmed under his alpha's touch.

“Anything?”

Before Niall could answer, Louis grabbed Harry’s face until their eyes met. “No matter what, I love you. We all love you. And your songs are amazing. Okay?”

Harry nodded. “Okay.”

And he realised that he really believed it. No matter what happened, he was proud of what he had put out. And when Niall let out a squeal and jumped to his feet, shrieking about Harry being number one in a frankly ridiculous number of countries, Harry was overjoyed with knowing that his music was reaching so many people, but most of all, he was proud of who he was and for having had the courage to be true to himself.

 


End file.
